LIONEL AINSWORTH confessed Aberdeen’s bizarre equaliser floored Motherwell as they slumped to their third defeat in a row.

After going ahead on five minutes through Marvin Johnson’s neat rebound, the Steelmen were pegged back 20 minutes later when Niall McGinn’s cross evaded everyone in the box to creep in at the back post.

It was yet another cheap goal gifted away by Well in recent weeks with one more following in the second half as Ash Taylor powered home a header into an empty net to leave their hosts with just one win from four so far in the Ladbrokes Premiership.

Ainsworth has played in the last two matches for Motherwell since returning from suspension, and he admitted the concession of such a freak leveller took the wind from his team’s sails.

He said: “The equaliser set us back and our heads dropped.

“We got our goal on the break and went 1-0 up and the tails are up, but the one we conceded for 1-1 was a big knock.

“You saw the way it went in. It’s not a move which has opened up our back four, it’s just a hit and hope ball.

“We dropped off a bit from there and they came onto us.”

Every goal Motherwell have conceded so far in the Premiership could have been prevented, and the two let in on Saturday are no different.

But Ainsworth is refusing to blame his defenders – just himself.

The winger said: “We had spells with waves of attack and our end product and final ball should have been better.

“I’m confident in the defenders, just as they are confident in the forwards. We just have to tighten up a little more.

“As a winger, though, I go home thinking it is my fault. I always feel I could have done more. As a team, we were unfortunate.

“We had spells with waves of attack and our end product and final ball should have been better.”

Ainsworth added: “When you play against Aberdeen, you know it is always going to be tough.

“But we were unlucky, even though you can’t keep saying that.”

The nature in which Motherwell lost this game clearly frustrated manager Ian Baraclough.

His team had been outplayed by Hearts on Wednesday night to go down 2-0 at Tynecastle, but in the defeat of the same scoreline to Dundee United last weekend and in this reverse to the Dons his team enjoyed dominant spells without putting the game to bed.

They looked much more of a creative for than they did in midweek, mainly with Scott McDonald pushed further up to assist striker Louis Moult.

Faced with a trip to Perth to face St Johnstone on Saturday, he knows that while there is work to be done, the opportunity to get things right isn’t far away.

He said: "Three out of our four performances have been very good.

"We asked them questions on Thursday morning because Wednesday night wasn't good enough.

"This was and you'll win more games than you lose if you play like that.

"We looked at Scott and felt we could cause teams problems at home by playing him further up.

"I thought he and Louis Moult were a thorn in their side all afternoon.

"They worked their socks off and that creates time and space for others.

"We will get better at that.”